Veneta Blasingame, Lewis’ mother, said the number of people with stories about what Lewis did for them was just unbelievable.

“She was always laughing and jolly and she liked helping people,” Blasingame said.

Blasingame said her daughter tried to give Ray her 1995 green Pontiac Firebird, but “Tony Ray shot her anyway.”

While June 24, 1997, might seem long ago to some people, Webber said sometimes it feels like yesterday to her.

“Before that day, my life was perfect, even though I didn’t know it at the time,” Webber said.

That was the day Webber lost her big sister, “the glue that held us all (the family) together.”

Ray was 16 when he shot Lewis, 30, in the bedroom of her Van Buren home on June 24, 1997, before he and accomplice Michael W. Hinkston, 19 at the time, stole her Firebird and fled the scene, Crawford County Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune said.

Although she was shot in the right hand, stomach and neck, Lewis managed to crawl from her bedroom to a hallway phone, where she called 911 and described her stolen vehicle. She died about three hours later.

McCune said law enforcement took Ray and Hinkston into custody a short time later after Lewis’ car had a flat tire on Interstate 40 near the Dora exit.

In October 1998, Hinkston was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. In September 1999, Ray was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.

McCune said Ray’s jury fell one vote short of sentencing him to death, which resulted in a mandatory life sentence.

The 5-4 decision struck down mandatory life-without-parole sentences as unconstitutional for offenders who committed their crimes as juveniles.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority opinion that a mandatory life sentence imposed on a defendant who committed murder as a juvenile violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

“The Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders,” Kagan wrote. “A judge or jury must have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty for juveniles.”

The Supreme Court previously struck down the death penalty as unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.

Blasingame wondered aloud how many Supreme Court justices would welcome Ray to live next door to them if he was eventually released from prison.

Webber said Ray’s decision to kill her sister wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment crime.

Ray and Hinkston went to the home Lewis shared with her husband, Wade, to steal the Firebird they’d seen in the driveway a couple of days before, McCune said.

When Lewis wasn’t home, Webber said Ray and Hinkston broke in, loaded multiple guns they found in the home and shot holes in pictures and furniture, while they waited several hours for her to get home from work.

When Lewis got home, Hinkston — in a statement to police, which was played for jurors at his 1998 trial — said she repeatedly begged, “Please, please, don’t kill me.”

Hinkston said he briefly held a gun on Lewis only because he was threatened by Ray. He repeatedly denied shooting any gun except a BB gun and he stated he was in the living room, where Ray sent him when Ray took Lewis to the back bedroom.

Hinkston stated he heard Ray say, “Lay down, lay down, lay down,” then he heard three shots. Hinkston said he asked Ray if he’d killed the woman, and Ray said no.

In a taped interview with investigators that was played for his jury, Ray said Lewis began lifting a mattress and he shot her because he thought she was going for a gun. He then left the bedroom, picked up another gun, returned to bedroom and shot Lewis twice more because he was afraid she would shoot him, according to a Sept. 18, 1999, Times Record report.

McCune said Ray told investigators that when he returned and fired the fatal shots at Lewis, she was lying down reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

At his trial, Ray claimed he shot Lewis once in the hand, while Hinkston fired the fatal shots.

“He had plenty of time to change his mind and just leave, but he chose to stay and wait on her and kill her,” Webber said.

Although they will never get over the murder of their sister and daughter and miss her every day, Webber and Blasingame said they’ve left behind the hatred and bitterness they felt in the aftermath of Lewis’ death and the trials of Hinkston and Ray.

After Ray was convicted, Webber said she didn’t work for a year, because she didn’t want to pay income tax that would go toward feeding Ray and Hinkston and their survival.

“But I had to forgive him for me to go on,” Webber said. “I had to let all that go (the hate) and forgive them, because I won’t survive if I don’t.”

Blasingame said she had to forgive because hatred will consume a person and make her bitter; part of the forgiveness also meant letting go of her animosity toward Ray’s parents.

Although they played no role in what their son did, Blasingame said she harbored anger toward them, but she realizes they also lost a child.

The bitterness is now replaced with the frustration of a Supreme Court decision that will likely force them to relive the horror of a trial that ended 13 years ago.

“So tell me, why he should get another chance. Tell me why my family should have to go through all that pain again. We already live it every day. We will never forget,” Webber said. “Where’s Lisa’s rights?”